In turbulent times one feelgood gesture has connected populations across the globe. The simple act of sharing a cup of tea. We prepare tea in many ways, but this ancient ritual stretches beyond cultures. Tea is a culture in itself. Tea is bonding.
Culture
helps strengthen the cultural and creative industries and promotes South-South cooperation to support developing countries to: design, adapt and/or implement regulatory frameworks for the Cultural and Creative Industries (CCIs); strengthen skills and; and create peer-to-peer mechanisms.
The Salgueiro samba school, whose theme for this year’s parade was the fight against racism, invited 20 refugees as part of a partnership with , to promote integration of refugees into the country. Refugees from Syria, Venezuela, Angola and DR Congo took part in perhaps the most Brazilian of all events – the all-night-explosion of music, drumming, and dancing that is Rio’s annual Carnival parade. Brazil is home to refugees from 88 countries and has received an estimated 325,000 refugees and migrants from Venezuela, in recent years.
There may be no universal understanding of creativity. The concept is open to interpretation from artistic expression to problem-solving in the context of economic, social and sustainable development. Nonetheless, creativity and culture also contribute as a highly transformative sector of the world economy in terms of income generation, job creation and export earnings. Therefore, the United Nations designated 21 April as World Creativity and Innovation Day to raise the awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development.
In Romania, the hilly and mountainous territory of the Buzău Land UNESCO Global Geopark is one of the 8 new designations. One of the most geodynamically active areas in Europe, the geopark exhibits 40 million years of geological history. Over this period, it ectonic movements pushed up mountains and transformed a deep-sea environment into a terrestrial one. Its rich geodiversity has influenced a unique cultural heritage with local legends in which mud volcanoes (shown here) become dragons, mud boilers are traps made by giants to catch cattle, and the future can be predicted by looking through a lens of amber.
Through reading we can open ourselves to others despite distance, and we can travel thanks to the imagination. The pandemic has also reminded us all of the importance of books and reading for comfort and escapism. encourages you to challenge yourself, to explore new topics, formats, or genres that out of your ordinary. Our goal is to engage people in reading, and to have fun doing so! For this (23 April), UNESCO has created a Take a picture of yourself with a book cover so it blends into your reality.
After launching ‘African Folktales, Reimagined, the ground-breaking competition to find some of Sub-Saharan Africa’s up and coming filmmakers, Netflix and announce the six winners.
Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, has taken action to protect culture. The first challenge is to mark cultural heritage sites and monuments as protected.
The pandemic has proven the intrinsic value of the cultural and creative sector at generating social cohesion, education, or personal well-being in times of crisis. It has also undermined the sector’s potential to generate economic growth, something which is too often underestimated. This global crisis has also demonstrated the significant challenges that need to be met to ensure that a diversity of cultural expressions around the world is preserved. A new UNESCO report, Re|Shaping Policies for Creativity, calls on governments to ensure economic and social protection for artists and cultural professionals.
The 3rd edition of the Health for All Film Festival calls for . Sharon Stone, actress and activist from the USA, will be part of the new jury. In this message, Sharon encourages everyone to : NGOs, public institutions, universities, students, communities of scientists, health workers or patients and their families, film makers, production institutions, and film schools from around the world.
Inscription on the lists promotes the safeguarding of knowledge and skills necessary for traditional craftsmanship and cultural practices transmitted from generation to generation, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals and festive events, and knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe. At this session of the intergovernmental committee four elements were inscribed on UNESCO’s List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding and 39 elements on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage.
marked its 75th anniversary this month. The history of UNESCO is a journey into often titanic projects with the aim to nurture reconciliation and unite people around a common heritage. This tells the story of UNESCO’s endeavors to understand, preserve and convey the best of our shared humanity: the common thread that joins us in our efforts to transform of the world.
Memory of the World (MoW) Programme launched a free, for teachers and educators on how to integrate important historical items from all over the world in their teaching.
celebrates a significant victory in the fight against the illicit trafficking of cultural objects as one of the oldest literary works in history is formally handed back to Iraq by the United States of America. In addition to this exceptional piece, the US Government facilitated the voluntary repatriation of 17,000 artefacts to Iraq which were discovered to have been looted in recent decades. The “Gilgamesh Tablet”, also known as the “Gilgamesh Dream Tablet”, is believed to have been looted from a museum in Iraq following the conflict in that country in 1991.
One year ago, a massive double explosion hit the port of Beirut. The human toll was heavy: more than 200 dead, more than 6,000 injured, 300,000 families left homeless. The capital’s neighbourhoods were devastated and disfigured for miles around, almost bringing down the cultural and artistic sector. then launched the (For Beirut) initiative from across the port. The initiative aims to mobilize the international community to support the reconstruction of the city’s educational and cultural sectors. UNESCO continues carrying out restoration work of schools and cultural sites.